Mark Long Beach

There's a LOT of things that go into QB work. I'm sure that all of the QB coaches work on fundamentals & mechanics to some degree, but that may not be that coaches strength. This is the first QB coach who is a master of throwing mechanics (and is a good enough communicator to get the QB to understand). Hopefully it'll lead to a better performing Fitz. For me, understanding the 'why' of things helps me actually do them. That's not true for everyone, but I think (hope) that it's true for Fitz.

Yes coaches like safe guys. That's why Pierson Prioleau was dragged around everywhere Gregg Williams went. He was a safe player. But there's lots of room for Safeties, but room for only one punter. So it's a binary decision. Most punters aren't good enough to unseat a solid & safe guy (only 32 punters in the NFL). The stats for Moorman the last couple years show that he's somewhere around an above average punter. This is significantly worse than when he was a top 2 punter for much of his career. If Powell shows promise, and in fact if he's equal to what Moorman is now, we'd be foolish to keep Moorman. Powell will be given that chance since Moorman is clearly on the decline. Why give up a potentially above average punter at the beginning of his career to keep one who may only have a little left? Remember, an above average punter isn't easy to find. The reason Mohr, Gardocki & Feagles played so long is because they were good! But they got replaced eventually. Moorman will be too at some point. If Powell shows well, that point may be this year.

A successful run is when a 9-7 season is a disappointment, not something to aspire to.

I generally agree with you, but not so much here. If he shows about equal talent, I think we keep him over Moorman. Moorman is still a decent punter, but he's lost his elite skills, and at age 36 is definitely on the downslope of his career. His stats match my eyeballs have seen, a downward slope. Maybe M levels out for a while and is just a decent punter. I've no problem with that. But what if he drops off a cliff? He's old by athletic standards, but not wildly old by punter standards. Punter ages from last year: 27, 31, 30, 25, 30, 29, 35, 33, 26 28, 28, 26, 29, 30, (36), 37, 33, 29 24, 38, 23, 33, 26, 24, 32, 25 (that's most of them. I got bored) In that mostly complete list there are 3 older than Moorman. One is Lechler. Jacksonville drafted a guy in the 3rd round to replace a 33yo. So out of about 30 punters 5 are 35+, as of LAST year. So being over 35 isn't a death sentance but there clearly aren't many. If Powell is good, we'll keep him, so that we'll have the position locked up for 15 years, rather than 1-2? Sometimes you keep a young player that has a likely upside rather than a vet on the slide.

We have better OLinemen. But yes, we may do the same since they aren't as useful on ST.

...wait. We drafted a kicker to boot it out of the endzone on kickoffs (Potter out of W MI). But we ALSO signed a UDFA punter (Powell out of FL St). Potter isnt likely a threat to supplant Lindell since he's not noted for his FG. But he may still stick to the roster just for his kickoffs. Powell IS a threat to Moorman, because he's good and Moorman has been getting worse. And I REALLY like Moorman, He's been one of our very best players over the last decade. He was our number one jersey seller for many years! Which is sad in its own way.

There are a few swaps I'd make. This would be one of them. QB: Jets over Fins TE: fins over Bills CB: Fins over Pats K: Mia over Pats (if Lindell is healthy, I'd put him 2nd over Pats) All within the realms of argument, Nice Job!

Not only can they create drama for the show, there's ALREADY drama. Playing professional football is not only these guys dreams, it's their livelyhood. They care deeply, and there's always some young kid trying to take the spot of an older guy. That's drama, and it's interesting (to me & many other sports fans).

We also play some games with our OL. For example we pull Levitre on some passing plays, this looks to the DL & LB as if its a running play, but in fact we're passing. It sounds vulnerable, but we seem to be able to get away with it because Levitre is so mobile and our other linemen are pretty good too.

I think you may be overrating what a guy with a ONE year contract in COMPETITION to try and get a BACKUP job after being discarded by TWO other teams will do to the Bills. Tebow was a starting QB with a massive fan following, who is in no way of losing his job. He's also backing up a QB that has been earning more and more criticism for his poor play in a highly critical and media unfriendly place.

Yup, and it lasted until he played hard on it. He really wanted to avoid surgery, it looked promising that he could last year but couldn't. Hindsight clearly shows he should have had the surgery earlier. If the operation worked... he showed some good play last year. Man did we miss his contain ability. We got killed around the edge.

Yep, but spent their first two picks on OL. DeCastro(OG) & Adams(OT). They have an all-pro center, and DeCastro is reputed to be spectacular, so it doesn't take too many more bodies to make it an excellent line. edit: On re-read, is the Pats line really that good? After losing Light to retirement and Mankins to injury (may not be ready to start the season). I feel like they're the beneficiary of Brady, much like I feel that the Saints line is a bit overrated. Our line gets a little of that boost because of our quick throw strategy as well. It sure feels good to have a competent OL. Sure it's not dominant but it looks to get better: Resources: Starters 1x 1st rounder - Wood 2x 2nd Rounder - Levitre, Glenn 1x 3rd Rounder - Urbik (Rinehart) 1x Undrafted - Pears Backups: 3rd Rounder - Rinehart 4th Rounder - Hairston

Nope. Tanney doesn't have a contract, he was a tryout only player. Unless we sign him, he's a goner too.

LA is big. It has a fair number of hardcore fans of all the local teams, but because of its size WAY more bandwagon type fans. But there are still large swaths of Raider fans and even Rams fans here. Many bars still won't show the Raider games because of too rowdy fans. Some of the larger sports bars have a seperate area just showing the Raider games. My local bar devotes half the space to Raider games, and the Raiders haven't been in LA for 18 years. (they were only here for 12) A local LA team WILL get support, but it'll take time (and better yet success) for it to become as supported as the Lakers/Dodgers/Angels, etc. There are a LOT of transplants here, and the ones that still follow their old team don't care about a local one (Go BILLS!).

Yup. A surprise would be anything but this. I would also view having either undrafted QB making it to NEXT years roster or practice squad a surprise.

Yeah man, don't waste the good karma! Let's hope he's as good as he looks like he is.

cool. Thanks!

"shackles of institutionalized language." Awesome. Just awesome.

Ah, that's a better list than I was going to post. I watched a couple of those. He's got a nice touch. Generally his throws were the best part of watching those games. Whew, looks like my drunken friends playing rugby at times. He'll have to do a LOT better job of looking off the safety though. He also needs to get rid of the ball faster. To my eyes, when plays were breaking down, he held onto the ball a long time, while not doing a great job of moving. The DE's he faced were pretty slow once they got around the corner, so he could sort of get away with it. NFL DE's will pound him into the ground if he holds onto the ball that long once protection breaks down. On the plus side, he wasn't a tuck and run guy at the first sign of trouble. But raw, raw, raw footwork on the move.

CA in LALA Land. (Long Beach, unsurprisingly)

Yeah, but I DID laugh.

Thanks for the update! Sounds great! The only bad part is kickoff is a LONG time from now.

Agreed that CB play stunk and that CB was a major need. I don't agree that Drayton was clearly our best CB. He was worse than McGee (when McGee was actually on the field) and about even with Williams. With Drayton getting a year older (in the over-30 danger zone for quick twitch positions) and Williams not a rookie anymore I would expect Williams to be a good chunk better than Drayton this year. We had 7+ Conerbacks. We were going to have to cut one. With poor play, wrong side of 30, high salary and doesn't play special teams, I think it was an easy choice. The Bills clearly felt so too given how fast they did it.

First guy that I thought of. Then thought: A punter is one of my favorite players for my team? Man, it's been a rough last decade.